Put enough board games of wide-ranging variety into one giant conventionn and ask two sleep-deprived content creators to check out as many as they can -- and some silliness is bound to come up.

And that’s what Going Analog’s "Non-Award Awards” are for: the nonsense, the funny stuff, the best of the rest, and anything else we couldn’t fit into “normal” coverage. These are the things that stuck out to us at this year’s Gen Con for whatever reason -- good or bad -- and now we’re obligated to share them with you.

(Make sure to check out our Gen Con recap and Games of the Show episodes of our podcast for all the “normal”!)

Let's get to it!

The “We Prejudged and Were Wrong” award: Gnome Hollow

A heavier (but not heavy) game from party/licensed-game makers The Op? Themed around…garden gnomes? OK, we admit it: We didn’t give the tile-laying, worker-placement game Gnome Hollow much thought or respect until we started catching the positive word-of-mouth and heard from The Op’s product marketing manager, Andrew Esposito, that the game sold about 1,200 copies at Gen Con and has a second print run planned for October.

So when our media copy arrived, we bumped it up the priority list to play, and…yes, it’s pretty darn good. We liked it enough that we’re ready to drop some cash on those fancy deluxe tokens. If Gnome Hollow is how The Op is getting into more original-IP strategy games, then, yeah, we’ll be paying much closer attention in the future.

Most embarrassing moment: Babylon demo

After our hands-on demo of the gorgeous 3D-garden/wonder-building game Babylon, Christina (aforementioned content creator #1) asked Shoe (#2) why he kept asking questions about rules that were just clearly explained. Babylon isn’t all that complicated….

Turned out Shoe went into this meeting thinking he was just going to get an overview and not actually play. So he didn’t pay close attention as Danni Loe, senior marketing manager for Flat River Group, went over the rules in detail. But his ignorance turned into terror as tutorial turned into his turn -- and he wasn’t sure what to do and had to ask dumb questions in front of everyone.

How embarrassing.

Most on-theme nails: Gold-drip nails for River of Gold

Talk about dedication to the thing you're promoting: Krystal Rose, marketing manager at Asmodee, had her nail artist paint the most amazing golden drips to match the bling on Office Dog Games' latest release, River of Gold. Her nails were almost as shiny as the gold streaks on the game board! (Check out our recent Gen Con podcasts linked above for more on this fantastic game.)

Most intimidating booth mascot: The Friendly Skeleton skeleton

Way in the back of the exhibit hall, quirky publisher Friendly Skeleton (Fantastic Factories, MonsDRAWsity) hung up the largest skeleton you’ve likely ever seen. Look up and marvel at its nakedness, then give an honorable mention Non-Award to a most hospitable-looking dumpster, from which they demoed Trash Talk, a game about making a shared language from pieces of junk.

The worst people: Entitled jerks

Lucky us, we got to witness two cringe-worthy moments during the show. At the Skybound booth, we saw a man wanting to purchase a game with cash. After being (very politely, we might add) told that they could only accept cashless payments, the customer made sure everyone knew his displeasure. He huffed. He puffed. He blew all of us away with his entitlement. Even after Skybound told him that they just didn’t have a way to take his paper bills, the guy replied sarcastically, “Um, with your hands??” He even complained to his friend about it ("Can you believe they won't take cash?"), eye-rolling so hard that our eyes followed suit.

Next was at the Plaid Hat booth, where a different attendee was looking to buy a game, and waiting for the one person ahead of him was just unacceptable. We saw him whistle -- yes, whistle, like you would at a dog -- at another Plaid Hat employee who was clearly in a conversation, away from the counter, and not ringing customers up. Mr. Toots is clearly used to summoning people to do his bidding, but it didn't work this time, so the poor guy had to suffer an extra 20 seconds of waiting to pay.

The “Shear Commitment” award: The designer of Seers Catalog

Taylor Reiner must’ve felt his card-shedding game Seers Catalog (covered a bunch in our Gen Con podcast episodes) needed a little more guerilla marketing. Or that he needed to clear his head a bit. Either way, the game’s designer ran a simple challenge at Gen Con: Beat him at his own game, and you got to take barber shears to his long locks (one buzzy strip per win). And some people won.

Most obvious (and cutest) plushie: The boopable Boop plush

Like, why was this not a thing before? Did publisher Smirk & Dagger Games not want to take our money for merch when it originally released the two-player, cat-themed abstract game Boop? (At least, we weren't aware of it.)

This guy is rotund and squishy, with the cutest happy little face and the perfect size for your arms to hug. IT’S A CUTE CAT SO CUTE OMG SO CUTE.

Runner-up: Cat in a Box's cat plushie with its big eyes and question-mark tail.

Coolest themes: Nature, Lairs, and Rebel Princess

Sometimes, a game gets its theme so right, that it sells itself. That’s right, marketing people: Save those budgets! Just let word-of-mouth loose on these winners.

Nature: We’re so excited about North Star Game Studio’s updated take on Evolution, a game we’ve brought up a lot on our podcast over the years. Evolution (and its sequel, Oceans) is the most thematic animal-based game we’ve ever played, and we always enjoy sharing tales of how our game sessions go with different species vying for survival by evolving in ways anyone can understand.

Nature is the, ahem, evolution of Evolution, with more beginner-friendly play and modular sets to add and customize gameplay for each group. Want a tougher game? The Arctic Tundra deck will make for a cold, unfriendly biome. Want massive creatures? Try adding the Jurassic deck to supersize your species. With the promise of years of new decks to add to the base game, Nature (Kickstarter later in 2024, release in 2025) is set to rule the animal board game kingdom.

Lairs: Some games let you build perilous dungeons to trap would-be adventurers, but we’d rather torture our real-life friends if we can help it. In Lairs, two players attempt to build the best labyrinth that will keep the other player from escaping with any valuables. Set walls and traps; plant monsters and hide treasures; and create a maze that will prove your worth to your guild.

Both players hide their creations behind screens, and they try to step-by-step explore and navigate the other dungeon by balancing careful vs. quicker and aggressive movements. It’s tense (but family-friendly) fun.

Rebel Princess: A trick-taking game where public-domain princesses are trying their damndest to avoid annoying princes and their endless marriage proposals? Heck yeah -- we barely know these guys! 

In Rebel Princess, you want to avoid winning tricks because they may contain those unwanted advances. It’s not necessarily the most thematic game in this short list, but it’s certainly the most unique. We had a couple of friends who went out and bought the game just based on how we described the anti-tradition setting. Plus...look at what's on the inside box lid (as shown/modeled by Jay Bernardo, marketing manager for Bezier Games):

Most mind-blowing component: The wibbly-wobbly Dodo egg

Dodo, from Kosmos, is totally just a kids’ game. A kids’ game with the coolest game component. Push the round dodo egg out of the nest and watch it wobble precariously down the ramps you’re cooperatively building and installing with your teammates via memory games. But what we're all really here to try to figure out how this ridiculous, non-electronic egg is rolling downward so irregularly and inconsistently, sometimes even defying physics and just stopping altogether for no apparent reason. These Dodo eggs -- how do they work? (We don't want to talk to a scientist about it.)

Craziest result of Winnie-the-Pooh becoming public domain: The Call of Pooh-Thulhu

Cthulhu comes to the Hundred Acre Wood. Hijinks ensue. Cooperative card game incoming!

Never thought you’d see so many tentacles coming out of Pooh, did you? If you have…you might want to keep that to yourself.

Best con advice: Bring two pairs of shoes

Thanks for the feet-saving tip, Ruel Gaviola! But where were you before we packed for Gen Con? Oh well. Next year.

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